Page 61 - ALG Issue 3 2016

Allotment Wins Lottery Grant to Buy Waterless Toilet
At Upton and Lytchett Minster Allotment Association (ULMAA), we were feeling both pleased and excited to nd out that our request to the Big Lottery for funding had been granted in March this year. Our big hope for 2016 was to purchase a waterless toilet for the site in Slough Lane, Upton. This type of toilet is ideal for us as we now have many children (including a pack of
Brownies and Rainbows), and a lot more ladies working away at their plots.
The toilet, from Woo-Woo Waterless Toilets (no joke, that’s what they are called), is now installed in a sunny, south facing position away from any tree canopy. The positioning was quite important as the toilet works by the sun heating up a chimney and any water is evaporated and distributed via wind power at the top, therefore owing harmlessly into the air currents. The temperature at which water evaporates is very high and any pathogens in the waste are destroyed. As most waste is in fact water (even the solid stuff is 90% water) most waste is removed by this method, leaving just a small amount of compostable material to be used on non-edible plants. As you can see from the photographs, the structure is very pleasing to the eye and blends well into the allotment site. We were also pleased to
discover that the wood used for the toilet building has been treated already and will not need painting for 20 years!
We asked the allotment holders to name the toilet as we felt it deserved a title, and the best suggestion was ‘The Daisy Loo’. So now when we say we are going to visit Daisy, everyone knows where we are off to. By the time you are reading this we will have had an opening ceremony for Daisy attended by the press, the Big Lottery team and our reigning Monarchs from the Upton and Lytchett Mister Carnival 2015.
Lynn Wright
School gardens in the South West
If you are working with a school or other group which you feel would bene t from membership of the National Allotment Society and its seed scheme, please send a brief note to Neil Dixon before 10th September and nominate your
local school. There are 10 memberships available to encourage schools and allotments to work together. All applications received after that date will be held over for the following year.
Neil Dixon
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